It's a couple years ago, and this pilot fish gets a complaint from the organization's business manager about the voice mail alert on her phone.

"She wanted it to stop blinking after she listened to her messages," says fish. "I told her it would stop blinking after she deleted her messages.

"Seems she likes to keep the messages until she's finished the task associated with them, and felt the phone system should be able to tell the difference.

"I suggested a 'to do' list.

"This conversation was repeated every few months since.

"Fast forward to a recent morning for a new circular conversation: Why is her voice mail box full? It says she only has 19 messages, but she's been able to store more than that before. Therefore it's not working right.

"I explained that mailbox capacity is measured in minutes, not message count. One message could fill her voice mail if it was long enough.

"Response? 'But I've had more messages than that in there before. It shouldn't be full...'"

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